Buying /selling a house

amother

Tue, May 19 2020, 5:49 pm

How does this work when trying to sell your house to buy another house
For some reason we can’t seem to get both of these processes to happen at the same time
Need to sell our house to buy another or almost sold our house and then the one we wanted to buy fell through

amother

Copper

Tue, May 19 2020, 7:10 pm

Obviously now is a terrible time to sell a house so I can only speak to "normal" times.

It is extremely difficult to purchase a house subject to a contingency that the buyer will sell their own house because what seller is going to want to tie up their home waiting for someone else to sell their own home.

In my experience (and IMHO) it is far easier to control buying a house. Presumably you have looked at sufficient homes so that you know where you want to live and how much home comps are for the area and your wants/needs. You would also have spoke to mortgage lenders and would have either gotten approval or known that approval for $X amount would happen.

Much more common is that a home might be sold with a rent back provision for 45 or 60 days so that the seller has the ability to move into their new home if the sale goes through more quickly than expected.

But people sell their home and move into a new home all the time. And worst case scenario is that you have to rent for a few months before settling into your new purchased home.

amother

Pumpkin

Tue, May 19 2020, 9:04 pm

I was living in my mom's house and waited months for the people who I was buying my house from to finalize a date to close. And then it kept getting pushed off.

They were waiting for the people living in the condo they were buying who were waiting for the people who were living in whatever they were buying. Yes, true story. It was like a row of dominos and to top it off me and one of the other women both had babies a day and 2 days before the closing. (which was delayed for 2 months after a 2 month wait from when we gave a deposit)

They all needed our money get the ball rolling. We closed, then the next day our sellers closed and the day after their sellers closed. Then starting from the last person they moved out so the buyers could move in and their buyers could move the next day.
Our contract had a clause that they have to move out within the week and pay for utilities. It also said what would happen if they didn't move out. A fine that doubled every day if I remember correctly.

I kid you not. It was a mess but it worked out in the end.

Most people don't get it to line up like that. They either sell and have a clause that they can rent their old house until they are ready to move out or they buy the new one and then try to sell the old one. That's a bit scary because if it doesn't sell right away, you have to pay both mortgages. Also, I don't think that would work if you need the money from the first house to buy the second.

tryinghard

Tue, May 19 2020, 9:10 pm

Just to address selling now - speak with a realtor in your community - in my area, buyers are buying, sellers are selling, and it's a major seller's market. Multiple-offer scenarios are not uncommon, even with covid restrictions.
As for which you should do first - if there are a lot of houses available, sell with a contingency that you need to find a suitable property. If it's more of a seller's market, find the right house and put in your offer contingent on selling your house (unless you have reason to think you might have trouble selling).
In other words - whichever one will be harder should be done first.

amother

Smokey

Tue, May 19 2020, 10:05 pm

It's nearly impossible to sell and buy simultaneously. You have to be willing to do one before the other.
Your safest plan is to sell first, move into a rental if necessary and then buy.
We were going to sell first with a clause that we can stay another certain amount of months after closing and pay rent till we close on the house we buy.
L'maaseh, our buyers ended up dragging us for so many months that we had to figure out a way to borrow and close on our house first. It was extremely difficult. B"h we survived but I wouldn't recommend it. We were a bundle of nerves (and in huge debt) till we finally closed on the house we sold.